The Prosperous Era of Longwan

When the Ming army's Qi Jimei troops were defeated by the Burmese army, Li Chengliang was leading the army more than ten miles away.

Although they couldn't see the battle situation, they still discovered it when the rumble of cannons in the distance stopped suddenly.

Li Chengliang subconsciously pulled the horse's head, and the horse immediately stopped.

"Commander, what's wrong?"

Li Chengliang's sudden move made the soldiers behind him immediately nervous.

They are all old men who have been with Li Chengliang for many years. They can naturally see the abnormal behavior of their master. The occurrence of such movements often means that there is an emergency.

Li Chengliang did not speak, but shook his head slightly.

Just now, a bad thought appeared in his mind very suddenly.

However, after he stopped, he still didn't understand what he was worried about.

On the road beside them, a group of spearmen just passed by, followed by a group of gunners, and then

"hiss."

Suddenly, Li Chengliang took a breath of cold air, and he knew why he had a bad premonition.

It's so quiet.

It's too quiet out front.

Even if the cannon defeats the enemy, the gunfire of the gunners will continue.

Even if the enemy is defeated and our army is pursuing them, gunmen will rush forward and fire a few shots from time to time, knocking down the Burmese soldiers running behind.

But it didn't happen this time. The sound of gunfire disappeared almost at the same time. This was completely abnormal.

Although Li Chengliang also wanted to train his subordinates to obey orders and prohibitions, the time was too short and he could not severely punish his subordinates who violated his orders like he did in Liaodong.

After all, although he is the governor from the capital, this is the southwest and a border town.

Therefore, Li Chengliang was tolerant to his subordinates. As long as the behavior was not truly intolerable, he chose to turn a blind eye.

"Send the order, the front team will immediately set up a formation, bring up all the Fran cannons, and place them in front of the formation."

Realizing that something was wrong, Li Chengliang immediately gave the order without hesitation.

Although he didn't know why, the soldiers around him still obeyed his orders very faithfully. Two war horses rushed out from the soldiers, one chased the Ming army commander in front, and the other ran towards the back. .

There, there were not many large and small Fran cannons attached to the Ming army, only about a dozen, which was about the same amount as Qi Jimei's equipment.

Soon, the team of mules and horses hurriedly caught up from behind and ran towards the front.

Li Chengliang rubbed his temples. The uneasiness in his heart had dissipated, but it was firmly rooted in his mind.

Finally, a fast horse appeared in front. The rider on the horse beat the horse desperately and accelerated towards this side.

When Li Chengliang saw this, he suddenly felt relieved.

Yes, someone came back to deliver a message. No matter what kind of news it was, he was not afraid. He was only afraid of living in an unknown fear.

"Report to the commander-in-chief."

When the horse came close, the knight reined in the horse without dismounting, and directly reported to Li Chengliang on the horse: "Commander, two sticks of incense, the Burmese army dispatched a hundred war elephants and suddenly turned around to attack our forward. Our army was defeated miserably. "

"War elephant, a hundred heads?"

Li Chengliang immediately understood what was going on. His hunch just now was right. Something happened ahead.

"The forward is Qi Ji Meibu, how is he doing now?"

Li Chengliang didn't get angry, but asked nervously.

After all, Qi Jimei has a different identity. His elder brother is Qi Jiguang. If he really lets himself lose him here, how can he save his face when he sees Qi Jiguang in the future.

If it were other generals, perhaps Li Chengliang would simply ignore his life and death. Even if he came back alive, he would directly capture him and wait for punishment.

But when he met Qi Jimei, who had a special status, Li Chengliang could only do this.

"General Qi and his troops are retreating."

"What are the troop casualties? Have they been detected?"

"More than hundreds of people were killed in the battle. The details will not be known until we reorganize our troops, but our front army suffered heavy losses in weapons."

These scouts are observing the battle situation from a distance. They can get a general idea, but the specific data is definitely not known.

But these are enough, enough for Li Chengliang to think about the reasons for the failure and find remedies.

“Are the Burmese troops pursuing?”

Li Chengliang asked the most difficult question. If the Burmese army pursues them, they will be here soon, more than ten miles away.

Then, he must be prepared to engage the Burmese army's war elephants.

"No, after defeating General Qi's men, the Burmese army did not pursue them and was cleaning the battlefield."

Tan Ma continues to report.

He was a cavalryman, and his position was not on the road, but on the nearby hillside, observing the enemy's situation from a high position. After seeing the situation, he rode back to report the situation, so naturally he saw quite a lot.

However, such people are all carefully selected from the military. Not only do they have extremely high military technical requirements for soldiers, they also have certain standards for their eyesight and hearing.

"Gather the cavalry and follow me."

Li Chengliang did not hesitate and ordered immediately.

After saying that, he took the lead and ran forward with the personal soldiers.

But after more than ten steps, he pulled the horse's head again and ordered to the soldiers around him: "Continue to pass the order back and order all the ministries to bring up the cannons, right away."

In just a few moments of urging his horse forward, he had roughly guessed the reason for Qi Ji Mei's failure this time.

Hundreds of war elephants charge, and even if the Fran machine gun can fire one war elephant at a time, it seems that it cannot kill all the hundred elephants.

It can only be said that the number of Fran cannons allocated to various ministries is a little short.

Thinking of this, Li Chengliang naturally knew how to remedy it.

Immediately take back the cannons assigned to each unit and use them together.

At the very least, take back half of the cannons from each unit and gather enough cannons to deal with the enemy's war elephants.

The numerical advantage must be fully utilized.

The Ming army often divided the units into generals, with more than a thousand people or two or three thousand people.

Before, Li Chengliang distributed the Portuguese cannons to each army, naturally wanting them to have enough firepower to attack the enemy after encountering the enemy.

But now it seems that this idea is too optimistic.

It is not that each unit cannot be equipped with cannons, but he must have a cannon with a quantitative advantage that can be deployed at any time.

Otherwise, after discovering the appearance of the Burmese elephant troops, he could not come up with a corresponding solution to crack it.

It is just that it is definitely impossible to transfer cannons from the back in a short time, but it must be done.

If the Burmese army can counterattack once, then there can be a second and third time.

It is urgent to assemble a cannon team as soon as possible, and they must be placed in front of the army, otherwise it will be useless.

Li Chengliang led a team of cavalry forward to meet Qi Jimei's troops, and soon gathered a cavalry unit of hundreds of people.

In addition to his own soldiers, there were also soldiers of other generals around him, who were also called into his command at this time.

Hundreds of horses galloped all the way on the mountain road, and soon they saw the Ming army retreating in front.

The twenty or thirty war horses in front were naturally Qi Jimei and his soldiers.

Seeing Li Chengliang coming, Qi Jimei was already extremely ashamed at this time, and he didn't dare to see Li Chengliang at all.

After all, this time the defeat was a bit miserable, it was really defeated.

In the previous time, no matter what, the Ming army just retreated and did not fight with the Burmese army.

But this time, not only did he lose a lot of soldiers, but also lost a batch of Portuguese cannons.     Although the Ming Dynasty was powerful, it was very expensive to manufacture Portuguese cannons. This time, the losses were all large and medium-sized Portuguese cannons, not the small firearms used by individual soldiers.

Of course, the most important thing is that even if the Ming Dynasty can manufacture hundreds or even thousands of falconets every year, how many of them can be distributed to the southwest, and when can they not be repeated.

It's not that if we lose one batch, we will lose one batch.

His team has twelve guns.

"Qi Jimei, organize the team immediately."

Even if he didn't want to see Li Chengliang, they were only a short distance away, and the two sides soon joined together.

Instead of scolding him or sending someone to take him down as expected, Li Chengliang directly ordered him to organize the team.

In Li Chengliang's view, since the Burmese elephant soldiers did not catch up, the situation was not too bad.

Just running back like this, who are you running for?

Morale, the Burmese army needs morale, and so does the Ming army.

Especially the Ming army, which is used to fighting a favorable battle. If the morale is affected by Qi Jimei's defeat, the loss will be more serious than the death of hundreds or thousands of people.

Qi Jimei was still in a daze, and Li Chengliang was already furious and ordered his guards beside him: "Immediately drive the people to both sides to form a team, and anyone who retreats will be killed without mercy."

"Clang clang clang"

Before Qi Jimei's guards could move, the guards beside Li Chengliang had already drawn their sabers and waved them at the Ming army running towards this side from behind.

Soon, Qi Jimei also reacted and immediately led his guards to form a team.

The Ming army was driven to the side of the road, each looking for their own general flag, and the hundred households were set up in order. There was no shadow of an army in such a mess.

Except for the battle robes they wore, they were worse than refugees.

"You take people to reorganize the troops and set up camp on the spot, dig more traps, and erect chevaux de frise. I'll go to the front to take a look."

After saying this to the busy Qi Jimei, Li Chengliang continued to move forward with his men and horses.

They were just cavalry, and running forward in this situation was actually a very unwise move for the commander.

However, the Burmese army did not take the opportunity to pursue the enemy because of the news brought back by the scouts.

Soon, hundreds of cavalrymen rushed out for several miles, and they could see the battlefield where the Ming and Burmese armies had just fought from afar.

Li Chengliang waved his whip left and right, and two teams of personal soldiers ran to both sides. They were going to the nearby hillside to monitor the surroundings.

Li Chengliang would certainly not be stupid enough to rush in directly. If there was really a Burmese trap, he would die, and the Ming army would be really finished.

Controlling the hills on both sides, he was not afraid even if the Burmese army ambushed in front.

With the speed of the warhorse, he was confident that he could rush out.

He led his men and horses forward slowly, constantly observing the situation of the cavalry teams on both sides until he saw the cavalry teams on the top of the hill and sent a safety signal, and then he sped up.

The bodies of the Ming army were lying on the ground in all directions, and many of them died miserably. They were soldiers who were directly trampled to death by elephants, and even two or three people were trampled into a pile because they fell together.

"Ugh."

Li Chengliang vaguely heard someone retching behind him.

Li Chengliang didn't feel anything, and he believed that his personal soldiers would not feel anything, but the personal soldiers of the generals in the southwest, perhaps some of them had never seen such a cruel scene.

Some physiological reactions are actually normal.

In fact, he also felt retching when he saw the battlefield for the first time.

It's just that he has seen it too much, so he is numb and doesn't feel anything at all.

Soon, they passed the place where the bodies of the Ming army were piled up, and this was the front of the battle.

The previously abandoned cannons were gone, and they were obviously taken away by the Burmese army.

"It's so narrow, and they actually sent out a hundred war elephants. Are they really not afraid of being burned to death by our army?"

Li Chengliang looked at the non-existent Burmese army in front and said something fiercely.

Yes, he was a little confused when he saw the terrain.

There is a road in the middle, with small slopes on both sides. War elephants are arranged in such a narrow terrain. If there are enough cannons, none of the war elephants can even think of leaving alive.

Even if there were no cannons, as long as the Ming army had a little time to prepare and cut down the trees on the hillsides on both sides and set fire to them, they could actually block the elephant attack.

But he failed.

He knew that this non-war crime was really due to the Ming army's lack of preparation.

"I guess that kid was a little aggrieved at losing."

Li Chengliang was thinking about Qi Jimei's appearance. When he looked back and saw Qi Jiguang, he might as well talk to him about it.

In fact, Qi Jimei did not rely entirely on Qi Jiguang's protection to obtain the position of chief military officer. In his early years when Qi Jiguang was fighting against the Japanese, Qi Jimei served in his army, which can be considered as a bit of credit and insight.

But I know how to fight the vicious Japanese pirates, but I don’t know how to fight the Burmese elephant soldiers.

Li Chengliang actually wronged Qi Jimei. He thought of preparing fuel and setting fire to stop the elephants, but he did not expect that the army would be defeated so quickly, and the army formation collapsed without enough time.

"The general is incompetent. Please punish him, Commander-in-Chief."

At this time, Qi Jimei, who was staying behind to organize the army, came up, urged his horse to come closer, and apologized with a red face.

"Tell me about the process."

Li Chengliang had no intention of punishing him, so his mood was relatively stable at this time.

Soon, he learned from Qi Jimei the entire process of their battle with the Burmese army, including his response and the characteristics of the Burmese army's attack.

"You said that war elephant can run as fast as a charging soldier?"

Li Chengliang suddenly interrupted Qi Jimei's narration. He had seen an elephant before, so how could he beat it and run so fast?

Li Chengliang somewhat didn't believe it.

"I don't dare to lie, your war elephant is indeed very fast."

Qi Jimei hurriedly defended.

"You said that when a cannon hit a war elephant, the elephant only suffered pain but no obvious injuries?"

Li Chengliang continued to ask.

"Yes, Marshal"

Qi Jimei was told his reaction after seeing the cannonball hitting the war elephant with his own eyes and his guess. Li Chengliang nodded slightly.

"Not afraid of the sound of guns and gunfire, but also seemingly invisible, which is interesting."

Li Chengliang probably guessed something and knew that the Burmese army was relying on him.

To deal with this upgraded version of the war elephant, even if you light a few fires, the effect will be limited.

"You only see a few injured elephants. Point to the location."

Li Chengliang continued.

"here."

Soon, Qi Jimei found several places with large pools of blood ahead. "These should be the blood stains left after the war elephants were injured."

Li Chengliang estimated the distance and found that it was already very close.

At close range, the Fran cannon could potentially injure an elephant.

Li Chengliang felt a little pain, "It seems that the more than 20 cannons that I originally thought of forming a team are not enough. At least a group of 36 cannons can resist the attack of a hundred war elephants.

Immediately inform all armies of this matter and ask them to adjust the number of artillery units to prevent this from happening again. "

Li Chengliang will definitely not let the Burmese elephant soldiers find a chance under him again.

At this time, the Burmese general who defeated the Ming army and seized the Ming army's firearms was happily pursuing Mang Yinglong to claim credit.